Belize: Stepfather found guilty of manslaughter for killing 3-year-old, abusing two others

Belize: The court trial against 31-year-old Kenrick Longsworth finally found him guilty of manslaughter on Thursday morning. The accused was on trial for the murder of his 3-year-old stepson, Mark Teul, and the attempted murder of the two other siblings, Markeem and Zemark Teul, back in January 2020.

The court found him guilty of manslaughter and not murder, as the judge was not convinced that there was any intention of the suspect to kill the child.

The judge also found the victim guilty of wounding Zemark but not guilty in the case of Markeem because of the injuries on his body being old.

According to the information, the mother of the accused had also testified that she had seen his son beating the three children.

The incident, which occurred on January 10, 2020, took place on Lovely Lane in Belize City. As the police responded to the crime scene, they discovered the three-year-old motionless on a mattress while the other two boys, aged 2 and 4, were in the bedroom with signs of sexual trauma.

During the testimony, the mother of the children said that she was not at the house when the incident took place and as she returned she found the accused sitting on a bucket outside the house and he asked her to take the children along with her next time she goes out. He then asked her for a cigarette.

After a few minutes, the mother found the three-year-old unresponsive and took him to a nearby hospital while the two children stayed back.

The medical examination conducted on the child found that the three-year-old sustained several bruises to the body along with a swollen head, abrasions to the arms, face, chest, feet, and mouth, as well as a broken left foot. The doctors also found that the toddler had a torn anus.

Meanwhile, the post-mortem report found that the child died because of asphyxia, strong force trauma to the head as well as abdominal compression. The other two children were severely beaten and endured sexual abuse as well, due to which they had to be hospitalized for many days.

During the verdict, the judge felt sorry for the children as they were not taken out from such an environment.